CSC Staff

This week we are excited to present an excerpt from This Moment in Cancer, a health blog at 90.9 WBUR—Boston’s NPR News Station. In the post by Karen Weintraub, “How Researchers Are Putting The Body's Own Army To Work To Fight Cancer,” chemotherapy as a cancer treatment option is discussed:

Radiation, chemotherapy and surgery are great at shrinking or cutting out tumors. But these approaches can miss cancer cells that then seed new tumors.

That’s why researchers are increasingly pinning their hopes on a new treatment strategy

This week's blog post features the story of two patients, Elisa and Bill. Elisa and Bill represent the people facing cancer who actively seek information about the treatments available for their cancer, who work as partners with their doctors and health care teams to make the best decisions about their care. They both made choices that involved dislocation, uncertainty and loss. They made these choices because the clinical trial represented something more important. They chose hope--hope for longer, better lives.

This week's blog post is an excerpt from last month's Cancer Experience Registry newsletter. This excerpt is from a Q&A with Dr. Patricia Robinson, Associate Professor of Hematology/Oncology at Loyola University Hospital, on the importance of cancer clinical trials.

Last Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden hosted summits across the country and in Washington, D.C. to share progress about the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Of the 100 summits hosted across the United States, 30 of them were hosted by Cancer Support Community Affiliate locations. To see photos from their Moonshot Summits, check out our Facebook album. At the summit in Washington, D.C., our own Kim Thiboldeaux had the honor of speaking just after Vice President Biden. In case you missed it, below is a portion of Kim's speech.

This week’s blog post is a Q&A with award-winning photographer Rick Guidotti of Positive Exposure. He recently partnered with Baxalta (now part of Shire) to launch an exhibit featuring the perspectives of people impacted by various types of rare cancer including those who have been diagnosed, their family and friends, advocacy organizations, and healthcare providers.

Right now, we are in an era of remarkable progress in understanding why and how cancers start and grow. Researchers are developing many new ways to treat cancers. In the last 10 years, targeted therapies and immunotherapy have opened the doors to real hope for longer, better lives--even cures--for people whose cancers could not be treated successfully.

Every year, more than 30,000 oncology professionals from all over the world, including Cancer Support Community leaders come together at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago to discuss new innovations and confront current challenges in the field of oncology. A highlight of this year's meeting was a panel discussion featuring CSC CEO Kim Thiboldeaux.

"By definition," Lillie Shockney says, "hope is something in the future, something that motivates us to go forward in some manner. When someone is facing cancer, it's important from the outset to learn what that person's life goals and hopes are and to think about whether these hopes can be fulfilled. Are they realistic? Sometimes, you have to step back and take a different path."